Media bosses turn to deals as ownership bill beckons

Media owners have fought long and hard for changes to ownership restrictions and with the laws passing the Senate late on Thursday, attention will be turning to what deals might now be done.

But even with clear passage now visible, experts predict there will not be any immediate flurry of major deals in the capital cities. The real action may be further away, particularly in regional radio where audiences and revenues are growing.

Nine's chief executive, Hugh Marks, congratulated the government and thanked the senators who passed the media reform bill 31-27.

"The changes in ownership laws provide more flexibility to media organisations to configure their businesses in a structure that allows greater efficiencies and flexibility to respond to audience's needs," he said.

"The bill will return to the lower house in October when the parliament resumes and we eagerly anticipate the opportunities for our business from that point."

Ten's Paul Anderson said he was "relieved at the prospect of saying goodbye to the world's highest licence fees and the antiquated ownership laws".

"Like all great television dramas, this has been a long-running saga, full of twists and turns, and even with a nail-biting cliffhanger," Mr Anderson added.

Crucially, the new rules don't create an open-slather environment. There will still be a limit of owning one television network per city and two radio stations per city. And the communications regulator will seek to maintain at least five different voices in big cities and four voices in regional cities. But there is no limit on how many newspapers a person can control.

Scrapping the two-out-of-three and reach rules mean regional and metropolitan television networks, such as Seven and Prime, could merge, or newspaper giants News Corp or Fairfax Media could do a deal with a commercial television broadcaster.

News Corp already owns half of subscription television service Foxtel, controls Sky News, and publishes The Australian, The Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and The Adelaide Advertiser. Fairfax Media publishes the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and The Australian Financial Review and shares ownership of streaming video service Stan with Network Nine.

On Thursday evening, Fairfax chief executive Greg Hywood said the company "will act in the best interests of shareholders to take advantage of any opportunities created by the changes".

Like all great television dramas, this has been a long-running saga, full of twists and turns, and even with a nail-biting cliffhanger.

Ten's Paul Anderson

With Ten about to be snapped up by CBS, pending a court decision and next week's creditors' meeting, only Seven and Nine are left as potential TV targets (or buyers for that matter). Any deal between the big players could still be blocked by the competition regulator if the combined audiences were deemed to be too big.

"We do not think there will be a rash of takeovers," said managing director of Essence Media, Steve Allen, adding he didn't see any media bargains at the moment because the revenue outlook was "bleak" or profits were under stress.

"We don't think most media assets are being badly run at the moment, or if they are ... they are already in foreign hands ... the biggest continuing disruption will be the big digital players who are not involved nor affected by the deregulation of the media market."

Professor of Communication at Deakin University, Matthew Ricketson, believes merging the newspaper giants with television networks would diminish the diversity of opinion and sources of news in Australia.

"If News Corp or Fairfax Media merge with one of the three commercial television networks or the commercial radio networks then they will be able to do on a large scale what is already done on a smaller scale with News Corp journalists appearing on news and current affairs programs on Foxtel as well as in print and online," Dr Ricketson said.

Meanwhile, among the smaller players there is little appetite for merging television with radio and newspapers.

Owner of ACE Radio Broadcasters and a regional newspaper, Rowly Paterson, said scrapping the radio broadcast licence fee was more important than the controversial changes in ownership laws. He is also interested in the details of the $60 million funding package secured by senator Nick Xenophon.

"We don't have the appetite to get into television," Mr Paterson told Fairfax Media.

"Free to air TV has its own problems and the synergies are not that exciting for ACE Radio."

Mr Paterson owns the Horsham-area Weekly Advertiser newspaper and 17 radio stations in regional Victoria. He recently bought more radio stations in the Deniliquin-Echuca area and Wangaratta.

"Radio is unique. They call it the cockroach [because] it just keeps surviving. It is a medium which is very local and very relevant to listeners in our market," he said.

It is that connection which makes radio a more attractive takeover target, now that the rules governing reach over the population are set to go, than regional television which is losing audience.

ACE Broadcasters may also qualify for the annual innovation fund and cadetship subsidy that the government will offer as part of its deal to secure three votes from the Nick Xenophon Team.

The three-year, $50 million innovation fund is available to publishers that are members of the Australian Press Council and meet the definition of producing civic journalism, defined as "investigating and explaining public policy and issues of public interest or significance with the aim of engaging citizens in public debate and informing democratic decision making".

Recipients must also be independent of political parties, unions, super funds, banks, lobby groups and non-government organisations, have Australian-based management, and be majority owned by Australian residents.

Companies must apply for funding for specific projects each year up to $1 million a year.

President of Country Press Australia, Ben Taylor, said most of his 250 members would be eligible for the innovation fund.

"Any funding that is being proposed in this reform package will go a long way to helping ensure regional journalism stays viable," he told Fairfax Media.

However, regional newspapers would be better off in the long run if they got a bigger share of government advertising, he added.

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The cadetship subsidies are available to print, commercial radio and commercial television and will see the Department of Communications matching up to $40,000 in wage subsidies for up to 200 cadets over two years. The $40,000 is per cadet over the length of their cadetship. At least 80 cadets must be in regional outlets each year.

Large media companies are eligible for the cadetship subsidies. The ABC and SBS are not eligible for either fund.